We don’t get paid much for our clothes, and we need to compete with China and Bangladesh… If we pay everyone £10 or £6 then we will make a loss. — Fashion Square Ltd
Shocking report this evening on Channel Four Dispatches, Undercover: Britain’s Cheap Clothes, on fast fashion sourced by leading brand names from sweatshops in Leicester – New Look, River island, Boohoo and Missguided – workers paid less than half the minimum wage.
The usual response, we did not know, if we had known we would have dealt with it.
When fast fashion forces down the price it pays, when a factory owner says he cannot produce at the price unless he pays his workers only £3 an hour, then of course these brands are culpable.
In one of the sweatshops, supplying Boohoo and Missguided, it was a potential death trap.
The brands rake in vast profits on the back of exploited workers.
The people who buy into fast fashion, wear once then throw away, are also culpable.
In addition to exploiting workers, it is damaging the environment.
- Undercover: Britain’s Cheap Clothes
- Channel 4 Dispatches suggests clothes factories paying less than minimum wage
- Channel 4 Dispatches Britain’s Cheap Clothes Investigation Reveals Workers Paid Below National Living Wage
It does not have to be, instead of fast fashion, zombies buying into the latest fad, we can have slow fashion, quality, sustainable production, minimum impact, ethical, paying producers and workers a fair price, clothes we value.
Though you will look long and hard to find fashion shops that support slow fashion, other than simply pay lip service.
Two that spring to mind, The Fair Shop and Nia Boutique.
The Fair Shop
The Fair Shop in Brighton, on the road leading down to the seafront from Brighton Station. Not the best location, a better location would be in North Laine.
![20160529_160024[1]](https://keithpp.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/20160529_1600241.jpg?w=599&h=449)
Nia Boutique
